More victim blaming, from Anne Robinson

In the Guardian, discussing the Jimmy Savile stuff and other people in broadcasting. From this article here

"It's not something I came into contact with. And if I had, I just wouldn't have put up with it. But that's me. The conspiracy of silence at Stoke Mandeville is far more distressing than the fact that Liz Kershaw didn't have the sense to say "Stop" when someone groped her in a BBC studio. What disappoints me now is that girls leave school and university with decent brains and qualifications, but at no point along the line has anyone taught them a few tricks of the trade, whether it's negotiating a salary or how to deal with a predatory male."

Oh yes, she should have said stop. That's the problem. Not that the man thought he was entitled to grope her This shit is making me depressed.

Perhaps instead of teaching my DD to say 'stop' we should be teaching everyone not to see women with such a total absence of respect. Like meat.

It's that underlying assumption of silly women putting up with it that really made me feel quite angry. And whoopee that she says she wouldn't have put up with it. She seems to be so missing the point.

Anne, if you are reading - It's not their reaction that's wrong, it's the men's behaviour.

I think I am another MNer starting to see that MN is affecting my outlook a bit

Seriously, Anne? If someone is groping you live on air, they have to be pretty damn convinced of their invincibility and your insignificance. When you were that age, in that position of powerlessness, would you have spoken out? Really?

If it happened to Liz Kershaw today she might well react differently being older, more powerful etc. Not. The. Fucking. Point.

I think this sort of "fits" with the persona that Anne Robinson has always tried to portray - the tough-as-old-boots-no-compromise-hard-as-a-man sort of image, if you know what I mean.

I wouldn't expect her publicly to show any sympathy or understanding for women who've experienced sexual harassment or abuse. That doesn't mean her comments aren't incredibly insensitive, ill informed, obtuse and victim blaming. They are, of course, all of those things, but that is sadly par for the course for her "public image."

Dunno actually. I like to think (and maybe I'm right, but I'll never know!) that if some guy had groped my boobs live on air I'd have jumped out of my seat and said, "Get your hands off me you pus-ridden sleazebag!" (yes, live on air )

I'm a freeze-er. I didn't know that until I was in a non-sexual urgent situation. I would have said that I was a do-er, given my reactions in non-urgent (I mean non life and limb) scenarios. I was wrong.

One of the more dreadful aspects of the Saville business is that he (allegedly!) preyed on girls who were young, naive and in some cases, it now appears, physically immobilised. Not on confident adult women. That's the whole point, and no doubt to him a lot of the appeal.

On an tangent, wasn't it Anne Robinson who was quite angry about all the slurs cast at her beloved employer Robert Maxwell on the occasion of his death, until she realised he'd run off with the entire company pension fund, including hers. One shouldn't laugh. Well, I was very sorry for most of them.

Anne Robinson sounds as if she is just trying to blow her own trumpet...aren't I just great and so much more sensible and strong than other women!!

It think Anne should count her lucky stars she has been left alone. I think predatory men can sense when girls/women have a wee vulnerable side to them, and they zoom in on them, more so than they would with people like Anne ho have a harder edge.

I hope that doesn't sound as if I am putting any blame on the victim - I definitely am not. Just that I think these sorts of men use vulnerabilty to their advantage.

SC I agree and think it is the opposite of victim blaming. When someone mugged a friend of mine who wore glasses and knocked his glasses off first, I have little doubt that his vulnerability there was part of their victim asssessment, just as the Rochdale criminals chose girls who would be vulnerable. And yet this is often forgotten in discussing - why didn't the victim respond as I think i would have done, from my "safe" armchair position as, say, an

It's so easy to say what you would have done when you've never been there. On one hand I wasn't abused by the person who abused my brother and sister which we all think is because he knew he wouldn't get away with it with me, I don't have their need to "protect" Mum in the way they do and I was always gobby as a child... it was pretty obvious what would have happened - after the first time! On the other hand, as much as I've thought I could protect myself if anything ever happened to me, I was raped as an adult. I did go to the police (for all the good it did me!) but I couldn't have stopped him, he had one thought in his head.

The only thoughts I have towards Anne reading this are I'm so grateful for her that she and the people she loves have never experienced this. The comments are from an ignorance that I wish I could get back.

Yes, this made me cross too. How dare she imply that women have a choice about being abused. I agree completely she is very lucky to have the privilege of such ignorance of how little choice and control of the situation women have when faced with a truly predatory and determined male, particularly in a position of power.